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The Secret to a Happy Marriage? Two Master Bedrooms

Stephanie and Jerry Stern, who will celebrate their 24th anniversary this May, have found the key to a happy marriage: two bedroom suites, one for him and one for her.

“I’ve gotten past the point of people thinking we are really freaky and weird,” said Ms. Stern, 75, who took over the master bedroom of their 4,700 square-foot Tudor home in Studio City, Calif., a little over a year ago. “It makes it so nice. I don’t have the pressure when I’m reading at night of him saying, ‘Turn the light off’—and when he wanders around in the middle of the night, he doesn’t wake me.”

Now, after watching the evening news together in Ms. Stern’s sage green bedroom suite, Mr. Stern, a 77-year-old retired real-estate lawyer, kisses his wife good night and heads for his cream-colored bedroom with attached bath down the hall. “I got sick of the black-and-blue marks from those elbows when I was snoring,” he jokes.

Homeowners with a hankering for extra elbow room are driving a small but lucrative market for homes with multiple master bedroom suites. At the top 10% of the market nationwide, active listings for homes with multiple master bedrooms were priced about 9% higher on average than those with just one master, according to analysts at realtor.com. (News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, also owns realtor.com.)

Luxury home builders are taking notice, according to Pete Reeb, a principal with John Burns Real Estate Consulting, who advises residential developers. Nearly one out of three people who were looking for a home in the $2 million-and-above price range expressed interest in the option of dual master bedrooms, according to a 2016 survey by the consulting group, which drew on data from builders and about 25,000 home shoppers nationwide.

“This was the first survey where we asked about a dual master—prior to this year, it wasn’t on the radar at all,” Mr. Reeb said.

Photo: Phelan M. Ebenhack for The Wall Street Journal

Master bedrooms may be multiplying in response to a broader demographic trend, as the last crop of baby boomers hits middle age. Developers say that more homeowners are embracing multigenerational living, and want to create comfortable living spaces in their homes for elderly parents or boomerang offspring. Empty nesters building homes in resort areas often request an extra master bedroom to use as a VIP suite for guests.

Less outspoken are those couples who want separate-but-equally luxurious bedroom suites for themselves.

The Sterns are putting the finishing touches on a weekend home that they spent about $1.4 million to build in Palm Springs, in a new development called Sol—where every one of the 46 Midcentury Modern-style homes has two master bedroom suites: one upstairs and one downstairs.

“That was a huge selling point—they’re both equally beautiful with huge bathrooms and closets,” said Ms. Stern, who is still in the process of furnishing and decorating the two bedrooms.

Although homes at Sol are relatively small—2,200 to 2,500-square-feet—that second master bedroom was a must-have for its target market, according to Vince Barbato, a principal with Family Development Homes.

Prospective owners “wanted a nice bedroom for guests,” Mr. Barbato said. That said, he estimates that “possibly 10%” of Sol homeowners are using both master suites for themselves.

In the 1950s, twin beds for married couples were a hallmark of pop cultural icons like “I Love Lucy” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” The sexual revolution changed that—transforming separate beds into a symbol of a relationship’s demise. “There has been this stigma about people sleeping apart,” said Wendy Troxel, a clinical psychologist and senior behavioral scientist at the Rand Corp., who studies sleep. “But perhaps we are moving more toward this acceptance that there is not one-size-fits-all.”

One factor may be that more people are having trouble sleeping, particularly as they age. Rafael Pelayo, a clinical professor of psychiatry and sleep specialist at Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, treats couples who are sleeping apart because of disorders like insomnia, snoring and REM sleep behavior disorder—acting out dreams with verbal or physical outbursts.

“Separate bedrooms are a reflection of the fact that it’s an older population with more disposable income, and that they value their sleep more—and are ready to invest more in it,” Dr. Pelayo said.

Tony Trivedi, an electrical engineer who creates and oversees critical power systems, built a $1.6 million home in Bethlehem, Pa., last year with separate master bedroom suites for himself and his wife, Theresa, both in their 50s. The couple’s schedules clash. Ms. Trivedi, a retired teacher, is in bed early and rises by 8; Mr. Trivedi works long, irregular hours and has no sleep routine—a source of conflict in their old home.

“I’m getting up at 4 in the morning, and 24 hours later I’m going to bed at 4 in the morning—it was very disruptive,” said Mr. Trivedi. “Also, there’s some snoring issues,” he added. (Ms. Trivedi, who preferred not to be quoted, confirmed that she snores.)

Ms. Trivedi reads and entertains in her suite. Mr. Trivedi uses his primarily for sleeping and getting dressed. “There’s date night,” Mr. Trivedi said. “Mohammed goes to the mountain, so to speak.”

Although Susan and Michael Goldsberry share a bedroom, they wanted two master bedroom suites in the 6,000-square-foot home they built last year in the gated Pacific Ridge development in Newport Coast, Calif., for about $5.2 million.

The upstairs suite overlooks the ocean with views of Catalina Island, while the master bedroom directly below it opens onto the pool and patio; both are decorated with the same taupe color scheme. The couple wants to stay in the house for a decade or longer, and plans to use both bedrooms over time.

“The one upstairs is the one we use [now], because it has the better view,” said Ms. Goldsberry, 61, who founded Benchmark Cosmetics Lab, which provides research and development for the beauty industry. “We really have our eyes set on the downstairs master as the permanent bedroom. It’s a matter of time till our knees go bad.”

There is also a bedroom for the Goldsberrys’ college-age son and two guest rooms; the downstairs master is off-limits.

“It sits empty,” said Ms. Goldsberry. “It’s nice and neat—so it’s there for whenever we want it.”

At Toll Brothers’ gated Casabella development in Windermere, Fla., near Orlando, oversize dual master bedrooms are a standard feature of the $1 million-plus Villa Lago and Villa Milano homes.

That wasn’t enough for Carlos and Elis Arruda, who built a $1.9 million home in Casabella with three lavish master bedrooms in 2015—including a suite for each of their children. “We like bigger spaces,” said Mr. Arruda, 40, C.E.O. of Case Imagine marketing agency.

The Arrudas’ son Filippo, 11, occupies the 9,000-square-foot home’s original master bedroom: a second-story suite with two showers and a Jacuzzi, and two walk-in closets—one for clothes, one for sports gear. Eight-year-old Pietra’s bedroom is even larger, with a living room and a walk-in closet devoted to her dolls and makeup.

“We try to make them feel comfortable,” said Mr. Arruda, who said that he and his wife don’t mind making do with a single bedroom: an expansive suite that runs the length of the first floor, with an exercise room, a bathroom with double showers, sinks and toilets, two walk-in closets—and one bed.

“We like sleeping together,” he said.

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